Devolution by Max Brooks

 

"It's great to live free of the other sheep until you hear the wolves howl."

Kate Holland and her husband Dan move to Greenloop, a small neighborhood nestled in the forest beneath Mt Ranier. Greenloop is advertised as both, the antithesis of the evils created by city living, and the future of housing development. Smart homes built in the middle of nowhere, running off of bio-gas and solar panels, with drones dropping groceries into the backyards. It's the perfect place to live if you're looking to reconnect with nature... Until a volcanic eruption leaves the residents of Greenloop isolated... and hunted.

This is not WWZ. I found it a little slow to start where WWZ was disturbing from the first page. I also found the Journal entries and character interviews so much like WWZ I wondered if the writing style was a crutch. (It sold well once before, right?) It was preachy in some locations, which I wouldn't have minded (because I happen to agree with Max Brooks), except the plot needed to be the hammer banging those self-righteous nails into place and the hammer maybe missed a little in the end.

That being said, the story may have had a slow start, but it did pick up speed and got chilling as it went along. Plenty of suspense, as a cast of caricature tree hugging hippies find themselves getting better acquainted with what it really means to survive. 

I read this on a hot summer weekend out in a lawn chair and it gave me goosebumps. I read this in a day and a half; at the end of day one, I wasn't thrilled about the dark hallway leading to my bedroom. By the end of the book, it makes me think twice about the unseen eyes watching me on my trail rides and hikes.

Every culture on every continent has a story about Bigfoot, the wild-man. It's impossible that an ancient primate would have survived, undiscovered. So why has everyone seen it? Max Brooks presents us with a fun story of Imagine-If-the-Legend-is-Real, and a not so subtle reminder: Don't go into the woods alone.

4 STARS
Originally posted on Goodreads July 19, 2020